In the broadcast industry, certain television cameras, particularly high performance cameras used in program production, can be remotely controlled and powered from a local or distant camera control unit (CCU), sometimes called a base station, through a transmission medium known as triaxial cable. The triaxial cable is a shielded coaxial cable designed to simultaneously transmit various bi-directional information and/or control signals and provide power from the CCU to the camera. Signals typically may include program video (component or composite), program audio, return video, viewfinder video, genlock, return audio, IFB (interrupt foldback), Teleprompter, tally, call, intercom, and bi-directional camera control data. These signals may be analog, such as AM or FM, and/or digital in nature. Power may be in the form of AC or DC. Since there is typically only one physical cable, it is the function of the camera system's triaxial adapter to encode and/or modulate the required video, audio, intercommunications and data signals onto the proper frequencies. These frequencies are typically frequency division multiplexed for transmission, with assigned frequencies travelling in their specified directions on the triaxial cable. Other techniques, such as digital hybrid transmission, may also be used in addition to frequency division multiplexing techniques. The triaxial adapter demodulates the composite signal at either of the receiving ends of the triaxial cable into the respective baseband signals. The triaxial adapter may be contained within the camera and/or CCU ends, or may be separate units that attach to the camera and/or CCU ends.
Since the information signals are typically high frequency broadband RF signals, the effective distance over which the camera and CCU can communicate and operate is limited to one to three kilometers. In addition, a trend in the industry has been towards cameras having higher performance and wider information bandwidths, thus further limiting the distance of a wideband, component triaxial camera system to approximately one kilometer. In order to compensate, users may utilize a larger, heavier cable, which may increase distance, but also increases time and labor to deploy and take up the cable. This distance limitation often interferes with the user's ability to produce the desired programming.